An undefined profession. The issue of professionalism in the journalistic milieu

Summary: The journalistic profession has never gone so far as to adopt a corporate structure, but it has a functionalist vision of itself. The author details the forms which this takes (social image of mediation, myth of the press card, jealously reserved sphere of action, etc.), and which conceal what he moreover qualifies as 'productive fluidity'. The social heterogeneity of the journalistic milieu and its multiplicity of practices attest to an undefined state which, far from resulting from misunderstanding, characterizes an indiscernible social group and a dual professional identity - the pursuit of social respectability and the indeflniteness of its characteristics.